exagerated army size when flank marching.

[william]

  Ok this is just down right odd and seems very wrong,

but can one apply exagerated army size to a flank march so it appears much bigger when it arrives?

If it can I assume that this would not effect command size for opposing flank marches.

  William

[andrew]

Good question!

The rules on flank marches & exaggeration don't mention this possibility or that this cannot happen.  So yes I guess it can happen but, as you say, would such 'fake' elements count towards the element count of the group for opposed flank marches?  I don't have an opinion on that but if I had a flank march pushed back by 'fakes' I would probably be initially annoyed at having a plan foiled by greater cunning which turned out to be a lie.

However, I have tried the exaggeration stratagem a couple of times without good effect - it usually bolsters the morale of my opponent to see me removing troops that are within 400 paces......

Andrew

[LawrenceG]

I see no reason why it couldn't be used with a flank march.

Thinking historically, the fake elements ought to count towards the total when comparing sizes as the apparenty smaller flank march would take fright as soon as it saw the large dust cloud. The rules don't support this though.

Of course, the exaggerrated flank march would probably makes its decision to fall back or not based on its true size compared to that of the opposition.

This would result in the (game) situation where each side announces its exaggerated size, but responds as its actual size - possibly leading to both being driven back.